1. Field of Related Art
The present disclosure is generally related to multi-function printers, and more particularly, to a system and method for using a multi-function printer as a user interface for a print driver.
2. Description of Related Art
Image forming devices such as printers, copiers, and multi-function devices provide users the ability to print from a device such as a desktop or laptop computer, a handheld computer, or other electronic devices, to a printer connected to the device. The electronic devices may be stand alone devices, or may be connected in a network, such as in a business computing environment, which may include one or more printers.
In order for a printer to interface and function with the computer to which it is connected, a printer driver may typically be installed on the computer. A printer driver is software which controls the printer from the computer. The printer driver may include a user interface which may be typically accessed by a user through an operating system or an application program, such as a word processing program, a spreadsheet program, or other types of programs, and viewed on a display.
When a user is getting ready to print a document, the print driver provides the user with a plurality of desired print attributes. The user may decide to print the document with a different paper size. A user may also wish to make other changes to the document to be printed, such as scaling of the printed image, changing orientation of the printed image, changing a position of the image on the page, or printing certain pages in color. However, all these print attributes are only available via a print driver installed on a personal computer. It would be useful if the printer driver was not limited to being installed on only a personal computer.